Past Holz Brown Bag Presentations

Spring 2015

January 28

A growing demand for convenient sharing of research image data between the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Imaging (LOCI) and partner laboratories stimulated the need for enhanced data management processes and accompanying documentation. SLIS graduate student Elliott Shuppy began working with scientists as a researcher at LOCI in Fall 2014 to meet these current needs. During his talk he will discuss his involvement augmenting one scientist’s data management workflow, including reflections on current practices, positioned and proposed tactics, and next steps in the process.

February 25

What does it take to create research data services where none existed before? Kristin Briney will discuss establishing Data Services at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her talk will include strategy and lessons learned 18 months into the process.

In this talk, the presenters will introduce the concepts of open access, data, and educational resources. They will share recent updates in each domain and highlight existing resources for learning more. The second half of the presentation will be reserved for questions and unstructured conversation about these issues.

April 29

The increasing availability of research and other data via the internet has spurred interest in and the need for better documentation of such data. The Open Data movement gaining momentum among federal funding agencies, academic libraries, and professional journals is also contributing to a recognition that good documentation and metadata are essential to distinguishing the quality of research datasets and facilitating their discovery and use in an online environment of ever-expanding information. This presentation will provide a primer in metadata use and metadata standards like the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI). It will also include reflections by the presenter on his particular DDI use cases, as well as his experience hosting the 3rd annual North American DDI Conference. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion.

Fall 2013

November 12

You have data, but do you know how long you should keep it? And where? You might be surprised by the answers. Dan Uhlrich, Associate Vice Chancellor of Research Policy, will discuss the Graduate School’s Policy on Data Stewardship, Access, and Retention and how it applies to you, and Judy Caruso, CIO Office Director of Policy and Planning, will discuss the legal aspects of using cloud storage services.

Do you want to get the most out of spreadsheets? Do you need to securely store and share data and files with collaborators across campus and beyond? Are you interested in learning more about data visualization? Learn how to be a power user of Excel, Box, and data visualization tools.

Wondering what a data management plan is? Why funders are asking for something called metadata? Where you will store your data and make it accessible to colleagues? If so, learn about many of the research data resources available to UW-Madison researchers. Speakers involved with assisting researchers with data management issues will speak on a variety of issues and services, including MINDS@UW, Advanced Computing Infrastructure, ORCID, VIVO, and data security.

May 7

Dr. Karen Strier will discuss her data-design process, aimed at collecting behavioral data on wild monkeys in Brazil. After consulting with DoIT, she engaged a student to design and build a custom relational database. She has been testing the design with uploads of existing data, and will soon have enough entered to start query-based analysis.

Fall 2012

September 17

Data and Tangible Research Products: Stewardship, Access, and Retention

Assistant Dean Stephen J. Harsy, School of Medicine and Public Health

Dr. Harsy will discuss UW-Madison’s Policy on Data Stewardship, Access and Retention, which clarifies ownership of data produced by university researchers, as well as researcher responsibility for data before, during, and after specific research projects.

This lecture will take place in Room 1220-1222, Health Sciences Learning Center. Please post this advertising flyer widely!

October 16

Since the announcement of the NSF Data Management Plan requirement, researchers have had many questions about it: Will I be required to make all of my data available on the web in perpetuity? Where will I put all of this data? Who will pay for storage after the grant is finished? The answers to these questions aren’t always straightforward, especially since the NSF requirements are relatively general.

The NSF requirement isn’t the only one researchers face, however: many federal funding agencies have data management requirements for PIs. What does this landscape look like? What can we learn from examining a range of data policies? This talk will review over two dozen funder policies and provide strategies for writing a data management plan.

This lecture will take place in the third-floor Teaching Lab at WID/MIR.

November 12

Managing Sensitive Data Across Research Sites: the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute

Dr. Erin Jonaitis, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute

The Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute conducts longitudinal medical research at several sites across Wisconsin. Learn how WAI collects, transports, and stores data safely and securely despite the logistics difficulties inherent in multiple-site research.

This lecture will take place in the third-floor Teaching Lab at WID/MIR.

December 10

Semantics and Geospatial Data

Dr. Nancy Wiegand, Space Science and Engineering Center

Data are becoming more voluminous and more available, but finding and re-using data across agencies or jurisdictions remains difficult because different terms are used. This lack of semantic interoperability has been recognized as a stumbling block to collaboration. This talk introduces semantics, including ontologies, the vision of enabling semantic interoperability, and the linked data initiative.

This lecture will take place in the third-floor Teaching Lab at WID/MIR.

Spring 2012

February 13

IMPORTANT: This brownbag will take place in the SLIS LIBRARY CLASSROOM, 4191F Helen C. White. Go into the SLIS Laboratory Library and turn left.

This summer Dorothea Salo will inaugurate a one-credit bootcamp-style course on research-data management (LIS 341) for graduate students across the disciplines. What context, best practices, and technologies should be covered? PIs, PAs, RAs, postdocs, dissertators: come prepared with horror stories, experiences good and bad, and your own “if only I’d known that early on” wishlists!

March 12

Learn how the Robinson Map Library and the State Cartographer’s Office are archiving geospatial data for use in research and teaching. Preservation of at risk and temporally significant digital geospatial content poses challenges:

April 9

The Teacher Incentive Fund is a data-driven project that takes advantage of knowledge-management and online-collaboration tools. Also discussed will be how school districts involved in the project use data to inform incentive and compensation decisions.

May 7

LTER is an NSF-funded network of 26 sites throughout the US, Antarctica and French Polynesia. LTER has had the mandate to archive data and employ a dedicated Information Manager since its inception 30 years ago. The group of LTER Information Managers was instrumental in developing procedures and approaches for long-term ecological data storage, including the Ecological Metadata Language, employed for data discovery and data access. New challenges include:

Fall 2011

September 12

NSF Data Management Plans

Research Data Services will facilitate a discussion of the NSF’s new guidelines for grant applicants. Written an NSF grant and gotten DMP feedback? About to write one, and have questions or concerns? Have a wishlist for campus support of data management and DMPs? We want to hear from you!

October 10

Dr. Eliceiri and the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (http://loci.wisc.edu/) are developing a complete, open source system for handling biomedical images, including image acquisition, data storage, metadata (experimental data associated with an image), visualization, analysis, annotation, and database interconnectivity.

December 12

Brian Yandell, Statistics support for UW-Madison research

Statistics department chair Brian Yandell will speak about how his department’s strategic plan emphasizes improving statistical literacy and access to statistics support and assistance for UW-Madison researchers.

About RDS

Research Data Services (RDS) is an interdisciplinary organization committed to advancing research data management practice on the UW-Madison campus. We focus on providing researchers with the tools and resources that support their efforts to store, analyze, and share data.